Day: October 5, 2019

2019 TPVD meeting week #40

Posted on by Inara Pey
Clifton Forge, August 2019 – blog post

The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on October 4th, 2019. A video of the meeting is embedded below, my thanks as always to Pantera for recording and providing it. This was a relatively short meeting, with the majority of the meeting conducted in text and revolving around Bakes on Mesh. This being the case, points are summarised below without the usual time stamps.

SL Viewer News

There have been no further updates to the official SL pipelines since the updates at the start of the week, leaving them as follows:

  • Current Release version 6.3.1.530559, formerly the Umeshu Maintenance RC viewer, dated, September 5th – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17th. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.530473, September 11th.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16th.
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17th, 2017 and promoted to release status 29th November 2017 – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

Brief Notes

  • As noted in my recent CCUG summaries, the Lab have recruited two more graphics experts (Euclid Linden and one other), who will be working on EEP and rendering projects once they are up to speed.
  • The new Voice update viewer should be going to QA in week #41 (commencing Monday, October 7th). This was delayed as a result of a last minute issue preventing it going to QA and then being issued this week.

Bakes on Mesh (BoM)

There is reportedly some confusion about Bakes on Mesh, with some users believing it means that “have” to switch back to using system wearables. This is not the case; those who wish to continue to use applier-based wearables can do so. Similarly, those who prefer to use mesh clothing can continue to do so. Bakes on Mesh is simply a means to allow system wearables to be used on mesh bodies and heads.

It is also hoped by the Lab that BoM will allow mesh head and body makers simplify their products by removing the need for some of the “onion” layers. This should reduce the rendering complexity of bodies and heads, making them less resource intensive to render.

For more detailed information on Bakes on Mesh, please refer to the following links:

Linden Lab:

Creator-related BoM documentation:

Informative Bakes on Mesh blog post:

In addition, Firestorm has created their own Bakes on Mesh wiki.

TPV Notes

  • Catznip has a BoM beta (and has done for a while), but release is pending some more work being completed.
  • Radegast is close to having a BoM release available.

The colour of love and implied horizons in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Lovers Art Gallery: Etamae

Currently open at The Lovers Art Gallery are two exhibitions that recently caught my attention: The Colour of Love and Implied Horizons, by artists Carelyna and Etamae respectively. The two exhibitions are split between the ground and upper floors of the gallery, with Implied Horizons occupying the lower of the two.

Active within Second Life photography and art since 2018, Etamae has established a reputation for presenting transformational images: captures from around Second Life that she has then edited and post-processed to create something quite different and striking to the eye. She has also, in some of her exhibitions, has presented pieces that have been of an organic, abstracted nature (see A late summer exhibition at the Rose Gallery, August 2018) that are as equally as captivating.

The Lovers Art Gallery: Etamae

With Implied Horizons, the focus is very much on the former of Etamae’s approaches: images from around Second Life that have undergone post-processing to give us something very different to the location or item that gave rise to them. The result is a baker’s dozen of images that are bold in tone, colour and presentation, some of which include perhaps a lean towards abstract in their finish (take Ferris, located on one of the easel at the front of the gallery space, for example), while one Ikea, has an almost surrealist aspect within it. All are richly engaging, demonstrating a marvellous eye for colour that gives several of the pieces – Two Stags and Town Limits, for example – a captivating sense of vitality.

On the upper floor, The Colour of Love presents 15 of Carelyna’s pieces. These offer something of a complimentary connection to the ground floor exhibition in that the majority of the pieces offered have also been post-processed, this time to give them the look and feel of paintings.

The Lovers Art Gallery: Carelyna

Given the title of the exhibition, it’s no surprise that several of the pieces in this selection are presented in warm reds, yellows, oranges, greens and soft browns, offering a feeling of warmth one might associate with love. However, even where colder colours – blue, white, grey and harder greens – are used, there is a sense of memory that suggests a recollection of intimate times.

Some of the places within these pictures may be easily familiar (perhaps most notably in the case of Calas Galadhon’s Santorini and also with Mandingo Quan’s Hazardous); other may tug at the seasoned SL’s traveller’s memory, although a right-click and examine might be required to bring the place properly to mind. However, wherever they were taken is really secondary to the emotional essence each contains. Meanwhile, there are two pieces that sit perhaps a little apart from the rest: Waiting for My Real Life to Begin and Autumn Wings. In comparison to the other images presented, Waiting… has undergone far less post-processing and retains the look and feel of a photograph while Autumn Wings has a soft, abstracted look to it. Different to the others they may seem to be, but again, there is no escaping their emotional power.

The Lovers Art Gallery: Carelyna

These are two engaging exhibitions, well presented, and with pieces that are fascinating to see and appreciate.

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Fleur: a region with a Dutch flavour in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Fleur Nederland [Dutch], October 2019 – click any image for full size

Magisch en kleurrijk dat is herfst op Fleur welkom op Fleur. Onze muziek is altijd goed.

“Magical and colourful, autumn is welcome at Fleur. Our music is always good” – so reads the About Land greeting for Fleur Nederland (allowing for my translation!). A Homestead region designed by Sammy Recreant and that has – as the welcome and name indicate – a Dutch flavour to it, we were led to visit on the suggestion of Shawn and Max. 

While the Dutch have a traditional Halloween-style celebration, Saint Martin’s Day on November 11th; although like many parts of the world they have perhaps absorbed more of what is regarded as the “American” approach to All Hallows Eve – pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns, trick-or-treating (rather than singing songs), and so on; and this is reflected within Fleur’s décor at the time of our visit. Thus, for the next few weeks visitors are liable to find a haunted house, witches, scuttling pumpkins (yes, scuttling), giant spider webs and more.

Fleur Nederland [Dutch], October 2019

Fleur’s landscape is now in the most beautiful colours that autumn brings. Come and have a look, enjoy the peace and colour. Welcome to colourful Fleur!

– Sammy Recreant, describing Fleur

Cast under a dusk heavy sky, Fleur offers a largely rural setting, heavily wooded and with scatted houses and other structures to attract visitors. There was no enforced landing point as the time of our visit, although one can be found in About Land, and I’ve used it as a starting point for this look around the region.

Fleur Nederland, October 2019

It’s actually good place to start, as it sits close to three of the public structures on the region – a cosy little garden hideaway watched over by sheep; a waterside barn converted for fine dining, reach via two stone arched paths; and – a little further away – a delightfully furnished stone-built cottage protected by a wall and grass embankments. Alongside and between these locations are dance systems offering visitors a chance for romance and gentle dancing.

Beyond these lie several more points of interest, all edged with hints of Halloween. There’s the little coastal chapel for example, a lone shelter sitting out on a headland and, to the south-west, a little dockside setting with wharves boats and little commercial properties set around a courtyard, all decorated for the holiday season and with the Dutch flag flying overhead. This area also have a bit of a North American feel, with adverts for New England lobster together with someone of a New England feel to the buildings.

Fleur Nederland [Dutch], October 2019 – “When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning or in rain? (Macbeth Act I, Scene I)
In the square there are further opportunities for couples and visitors to enjoy dancing – with the local radio station sitting on one of the wharves helping to make the area have a further celebratory feel. Take a walk out to the little ferry terminal and you’ll find a teleport disk. Right-click on it and select Teleport, and you’ll be lifted into the sky to the beach of Fleur, a wide expanse of largely flat sands and coastline modelled after the Dutch coastline along the Wadden Sea.

Currently with an incidental hint of Shakespeare with its Halloween dressing, rich with places for visitors and couples to enjoy, and with nice touches in the wildlife, Fleur makes for a pleasing visit, and those who enjoy Halloween hoping are also likely to enjoy dropping in.

Fleur Nederland [Dutch], October 2019

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